Chapter 11

Eliot was in the kitchen making his signature lasagna for their supper when there was a knock on the door. Nate wondered if this was Eliot's friend, the woman he had called in to help Parker. He opened the door to find a beautiful Asian woman standing there.

"You must be Nathan Ford. My name is Lee. I'm a friend of Eliot's."

He held the door wide and stepped back so that she could enter. With a lopsided smile, she stepped inside, bowing slightly to Nate as she came. He returned the bow and then said, "Why is it that all of my friends look like old men, and all of his friends look like you." She let out a small laugh, delighted.

After a few seconds, a gravelly voice called out, "Lee, come and get some wine."

"Excuse me for a moment, please," she said, walking past Nate and into the kitchen. She returned a few moments later cradling a glass of wine.

"Eliot said to tell you he'd be ready in about five."

"Okay."

"So, when can I meet the rest of the team?"

"In about five minutes."

As if all of them had been sent a subliminal message by Eliot, they all gathered at the table exactly five minutes later. Laughter flowed around the table, and they found they quite enjoyed Lee's presence there. When they had finished eating, they still sat for a few minutes, talking.

Lee looked around the table and then said to Eliot, "You know I always enjoy your food and your company, but I get the feeling that you brought me here for another reason. Why?"

Eliot looked around, a tad uncomfortable. "Come visit with me in the kitchen while I clean up the dishes, and I'll explain everything." Together, they cleared the table, stacking the dishes into one side of Nate's oversized sink. Eliot turned on the hot water and swirled some dishwashing detergent into it while it was filling up.

When he still hadn't spoken after three minutes, Lee said, "Well, are you going to tell me, or are we going to do this song and dance all night?"

Checking the air vents to be sure they were alone and finally satisfied that they were, Eliot said, "A certain member of our team was taken last night. She was meeting with another woman, a woman involved in a long relationship with domestic violence. The second woman left her husband and she seemed to think he would come after her. When Parker, the woman on our team, found her way back to us, she was soaking wet, withdrawn, and she either can't remember what happened to her or she won't tell us. I'm not sure which."

"You can do what needs to be done, so why did you call me?"

"She's terrified of me, and won't allow me to touch her. She can barely tolerate being in the same room with me, and the only reason she stays is because her knees are injured badly enough that she can't run. I don't even want to think about what will happen in a few days, when she's better, if we can't get her back to understanding that we are on her side and we won't hurt her.

"So you want me to talk to her?"

"I want you to talk to her."

"I'll ask again, then. Why me?"

"Because I don't want to get all of my military buddies involved."

"I see."

"I hoped you would." He paused, looking uncomfortable, and she got the feeling he wanted to say something else.

"What is it, Eliot?"

"She doesn't want to talk to anyone. She'll be angry when she finds out I brought you here to talk to her."

"Well, I can be here for a different reason, if you think it'll help."

"Has anyone told you lately how wonderful you are?"

(0o0)

Bonanno's phone beeped and he looked at the text message. When he finished, he called in to his office, barking orders in rapid succession at the sergeant who answered the phone. He also picked up the phone and called Hardison directly, setting him to tracking the sister's phone. Between that and the state police putting out an APB for the husband's car, it should only be a matter of a few minutes before they knew something.

Sure enough, moments later, Bonanno's phone beeped again, and he looked at the message. He hung up and dialed. The phone rang four or five times before a slightly out of breath Eliot answered.

"Little busy here."

"Spencer, it's Pat Bonanno. My men have located the car registered to Gabby's husband. It was found abandoned in a vacant lot three miles from the house."

"Yeah, Hardison just traced the sister's cell phone to the back seat of that car. I was just getting ready to send the coordinates to your men."

"If you can send it directly to the Sargeant, I'll stay here and see what the house and grounds can tell us."

"Sounds good. Thanks Pat."

(0o0)

Parker was surprised when Eliot walked back into the treatment room after supper, accompanied by Lee. She shrank back against her cot, and seemed to be trying to blend in to the wall.

Parker stared at Lee, and then, abruptly asked, "What is SHE doing here?"

Lee spoke up. "Eliot is my friend, and I came to ask him for some help with a medical matter." With those words, she handed a small drawstring bag to him.

He took it, opened it, and looked inside. "What is this?" he asked.

"I've been asked to lend a friend a hand with an overseas project. I need several vaccines I haven't yet had. I wondered if you might give them to me."

"Why not Doc or Sully?"

"Both of them are extremely busy at the moment, and I'm supposed to have some of these at least two weeks before I ship out. Please, Eliot."

"Okay, but if I do this we do it according to my rules."

"I can live with that."

Eliot pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and started to prepare the vaccines. He glanced at Parker to find her watching with fascination. Casually, he said, "Maybe we can spar when we are finished here."

"I'd like that," answered Lee.

He noticed Parker perk up a bit when he mentioned sparring, so he said, "Parker, would you like to join us? I know Lee can show you some things, and it'll be a different experience sparring with someone nearly the same size you are."

Parker looked up long enough to nod once, and then went back to studying her hands. When Eliot was finished with Lee's vaccines, he pulled her to her feet and led her over to the part of the treatment room he had set up as a training gym. Looking at Parker, he jerked his head in the direction of the training room, and she joined them, still hanging back as far from him as she could physically get.

Eliot struck a balance between strenuous workout and his knowledge of Parker's injuries, intending to make it meaningful, but not too painful. After thirty minutes or so, he could tell Parker was really hurting, so he directed her to go back into the treatment part of the room, and sit. After that, it was no holds barred between him and Lee. They were like a controlled explosion all over the training room floor. Finally, they collapsed, spent, and lay trying to catch their breath. Parker sat watching them and trying to pretend she wasn't watching them. He thought that maybe he was finally getting through to her.

Eliot sat down on the cot across from Parker, bringing his first aid kit with him. He reached out and took one of her hands in both of his, and looked her in the eyes. She pulled away, and moved as far from him as she could get, making herself as small as she could. Eliot flinched like she had slapped him.

He reached out to tweak a strand of her hair, and she flinched away again. He said, "What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing. Just please, don't touch me."

"What about your knees?"

"What about them?"

"Don't they hurt?"

She shook her head, still trying not to cry. Eliot looked at her appraisingly for a moment, as if trying to decide if she was telling the truth, and then asked, "Are you sure?"

She nodded. He thought he could understand where she was coming from on this—it was the same for him when he was injured—you couldn't allow the wrong people to find out or you had to expect them to use it against you. Right now, she couldn't remember who he was, or any of the rest of the team, either, so she had no way of knowing that they were not the wrong people.

"Parker, when I am injured in a fight or something, I don't want anybody to know. Do you know why?"

She shook her head. "Because I don't trust others not to take advantage of the weakness when they find me injured. I trust you and Sophie and Nate and Hardison because you have become like family to me. I trust my former military team because I have a history with them, and that history tells me that none of them are dangerous to me. You don't remember this, but we have a history, too—a history of treating one another when we get injured as part of one of the team's operations. That's all I want to do now—treat your injured knees and get you some medicine so you won't be up all night. Will you allow me to do that?"

She turned her head away and refused to look at him, embarrassed. Slowly, she shook her head, afraid that he would be angry with her, but unable to bring herself to say yes. He gazed at her sadly. "I can't help you then."

(0o0)

Lee laid a hand on his shoulder, and without speaking, told him she wanted some time alone with Parker. He shook his head, slightly, trying to tell her it wasn't a good idea, but Lee was having none of it. With a sigh, he left the room, leaving her alone with Parker. Lee walked over to the small refrigerator Eliot kept in a corner of the training room, and pulled two bottles of water out of it. Cracking the lid on one, she took a long swallow, and then she walked back over and, as she passed Parker, put the bottle on a small table next to her cot, and then took a seat at the desk, completely ignoring Parker and checking something on her phone.

"Thank you," Parker finally said, and Lee looked up at her and smiled.

"You're very welcome."

"Why are you still here?"

"What?"

"Eliot did what you came to ask him to do, dinner's over, and you've sparred, so why are you still here?"

"Eliot is my friend, and we will hang out for a while. Besides, I can't leave just yet. I have to be here for a few hours to be sure I'm not allergic to anything he gave me."

"He gave you a lot of shots. Do they hurt?"

Lee nodded, unwilling to lie to someone whose trust she was trying to gain. "I'm not gonna lie to you. They hurt, but not as much as it would to get one of the diseases they are protecting me from. And probably not as much as if Eliot hadn't agreed to give them to me. He's good at stuff like that. Why are you in here?"

"I'm not really sure. I just know that my knees hurt, though I don't remember how I hurt them. I can barely walk." Parker didn't know why she found herself telling this stranger things she wouldn't normally tell anyone. Suddenly, a scene popped into her head—one that felt real, but there was no way to be sure.

Parker stood, leaning on the railing next to the docks, waiting for the woman Peggy had asked her to meet. She was looking for a petite woman, with long blonde hair, who should come walking up any minute. Then, she was sailing over the railing, and she tried to grab onto something to keep from falling into the water. She plunged into the water, swam underwater to the edge, and climbed out. A moment later, she was slammed into something hard, and as the darkness rose to meet her, a face swam into her vision—a face she found familiar somehow, though she was sure she had never seen the person before, at least not in a long time.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Parker came back to herself, and her eyes focused in on Lee. She suddenly felt awkward, as though Lee could see all of her secrets.

"I'm fine. I seem to have landed hard sometime, but I don't remember it." She paused, thinking, and seemed to want to ask something else. Lee didn't push. She just watched her and waited.

"Well, for someone who has injured knees, you did a good job sparring with us."

"Yeah. It seems to me like I've done that before, but I don't remember the details. The man who was sparring with us? You—know him, don't you?"

"I do. We've been friends for a long time. Why?"

"What sort of man is he? He keeps calling me Darlin' and telling me he won't hurt me, and he says we know each other, but I don't remember that part. And I don't know if I can trust him or not."

"He's a good man. The very best kind. And you can definitely trust him."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Eliot Spencer would die before he'd hurt you." She broke off, lost in her own thoughts for a moment. Then she said, "You know, a shower would probably help your knees. I noticed a small stool in the bathroom that we could put in there, so you could sit down."

Parker appraised the woman before her for a moment, then turned half away. "I-I don't think so."

"If you change your mind, let me know. I'll just start the water for you and put the stool in there, and set out a towel where it is within easy reach for you. Then, I'll hang out with Eliot unless you tell me you need help again."

"Well, it would be nice to be clean. Do you think it'll help?"

"I do."

"And you won't stay?"

"Nope, though I would like to talk to you again when you are finished. I think we might be able to work together to make a composite sketch of the people who took you. Might give your team a place to start."

"I could draw their faces if I was sure I remembered them accurately."

"You'd be surprised how much will come back when you start to draw." The younger woman looked like she was about to sit down at the desk and start drawing now, and Lee knew she needed to shower first, for the sake of her knees.

"Shower first. Draw after," she said, pointing Parker in the direction of the restroom.